Current mobile phone devices, such as mobile phones, Blackberry® devices, PALM® devices, etc., have been produced in many different forms and formats. One of the more popular formats today includes a full touchscreen display. Another format includes a liquid crystal display (LCD) with a full keypad for text entry. The problem that arises in using these devices depends on the type of device.
The touchscreen devices have large, easily viewable screens, but text entry on these devices is greatly encumbered by the touchscreen entry method, which does not provide tactile selection or feedback when the letters are pressed on the screen, resulting in less efficient text entry. Moreover, the touchscreen device is more likely to misidentify the desired key, often resulting in selection of an adjacent letter or number than the one intended.
The devices which include an LCD display with a full keypad for data entry typically include smaller screens which are not as easy to see, especially when viewing or manipulating websites, text documents, etc. Although text entry is easier with this type of keypad, the limits of the smaller screen also makes this solution not fully appealing. Moreover, costs and the small screen size have prohibited use of a touchscreen instead of an LCD screen on such devices.
To accommodate the above discussed problems, some manufacturers have produced mobile phone devices which include flip-up, slide-out, springing, or otherwise moveable screens and/or keypads so that a larger screen can be included with a full keypad for text entry. However, these solutions present another problem, in that adding more moving parts reduces reliability and introduces additional chance of breakage. In fact, these types of devices typically have shorter useful lifetimes than devices which are designed as “stick” units, e.g., there are no external moving parts other than user input devices. Moreover, the additional complexity has been frowned upon due to the increased costs of such features. Additionally, the form factor of such devices typically is required to be quite thick to enclose all of the hardware.
Therefore, a solution which can provide a large, easy to read screen along with a full keypad for easier text entry while maintaining a small form factor that fits easily into clothing pockets would be greatly beneficial.